Kinsfolk far and near for the Wak day

Every town, parish and village kept its own proper day through the year, called its Wak day, and made great preparation of good cheer for it. Friends and kinsfolk from far and near were invited, and many spent more at one wake than in all the rest of the year, then kept from bodily labour for two or three days after, perhaps the whole week. Stubbes, attacking wakes through Philoponus, said poor men who bore the cost went short for a long time after, and guessed the feasts came down from pagan sacrifices to their idols.